Run your race 🏃

“…let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us”
Hebrews 12:1 AMP
 
Life is like a marathon race – it’s not a short sprint, but a matter of endurance. Success is all about doing what God has called you to do – running your race – no matter what. Others may seemingly pass you by – but you must keep focused on your race and actively persist forward. Those in the grandstands may cheer you on, or maybe they won’t – keep in mind that you run for the audience of One. The spectators may start criticizing you and some of them will even try to tell you how to run and in which direction – listen to coaches, not critics, and remember that Jesus is your ultimate coach. Success is in knowing your race and running it with endurance and persistence. Push through the difficulties and the challenges – endure whatever needs to be endured so that you can finish your race.

“but they allow the cares of this life and the seduction of wealth and the desires for other things to crowd out and choke the Word so that it produces nothing.”
Mark 4:19 The Passion Translation (TPT)
 
We are not called to focus on other people and their races, we need to focus on our race. Many distractions will come your way to try and lure you off-track. Think about it: the distractions will always seem more appealing than what you’re currently enduring on your race. The enemy won’t try and distract you with something that doesn’t catch your attention. The purpose of the distraction is to pull you away from what God has for you – this is why it is so important that you know what God is calling you to. When you have a conviction about the race you should be running, it is easy to identify the races that you should not be running. In other words, when you know what God wants you to do, it’s easy to know what you should say “no” to. This is what helps you to live a focused life.
 
The majority, if not all, distractions are summed up well by Jesus as the cares of this life and the seduction of wealth (deceitfulness of riches) and the desires for other things. The temptations that come to pull us off our course are attractive and come in the form of things that the world values and wants. Money, for example, is necessary to live in this world, however, for a lot of people they hear the voice of money louder and clearer than the voice of God. We do not make decisions because of the opportunity for more money, we make decisions based on what God is saying to us.
 
Don’t allow distractions to pull you off the race that God has set out for you. You do not want to come to the end of your life and realize that while you did well, you did the wrong thing. Know what God has called you to, and run that race with all your heart!